Quotes That Have Nestled in My Brain as a Result of Watching the State of the Union Address

To defend your ideas is quite different from standing, no matter how self-righteously, on the mere sound of a word. To say that you believe in "freedom," for instance, may make you feel proud and righteous, but this has nothing to do with philosophy, or, for that matter, with freedom, unless you are willing to spell out exactly what it is you stand for, what it is that you believe, and why it is that this "freedom," as you call it, is so desirable. But most students, as well as many professional philosophers, get caught up in such attractive, admirable words, which we call buzz words (emphasis theirs)... Indeed, virtually everyone believes in "freedom" but the question is what it is that they believe in.
(from The Big Questions: A Short Introduction to Philosophy, Solomon, 1986, p. 3

Serious, reflective Christians find themselves increasingly at odds with the dominant values of consumer capitalism and its supportive military patriotism; there is no easy or obvious way to hold together core faith claims and the social realities around us. Reflective Christians are increasingly "resident aliens."
(from Cadences of Home, Brueggemann, 1997, p. 2)


In the face of an empire that rules through military and economic control, what is the shape of a community that serves a ruler who brings reconciliation and peace by sacrificial death rather than military might? If the empire elevates economic greed and avarice into civic virtues, while Paul dismisses such a way of life as idolatrous, then how does a Christian community shaped by Paul's gospel live its life in the empire?
(from Colossians Remixed, Walsh & Keesmaat, 2004, p. 61)

[The church] has, for the most part, stood silently by while a predatory economy has ravaged the world, destroyed its natural beauty and health, divided and plundered its human communities and households. It has flown the flag and chanted the slogans of empire. It has assumed with the economists that "economic forces" automatically work for good and has assumed with the industrialists and militarists that technology determines history. It has assumed with almost everybody that "progress " is good, that it is good to be modern and up with the times. It has admired Ceasar and comforted him in his depredations and defaults. But in its de facto alliance with Ceasar, Christianity connives directly in the murder of Creation.
(from Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community, Berry, 1993, p. 114 - as read in Colossian Remixed)

To call this an imperial presidency is unfair to emperors.
(from this news article)